As the Syrian conflict takes on increasingly sectarian dimensions,
the crisscrossing rivalries that had been held somewhat in check in
recent years among Iraq’s Shiite majority and its Kurdish and Sunni
minorities also risk being inflamed. Syria’s sectarian makeup is almost a
reverse image of Iraq’s, with a minority, Shiite-affiliated Alawite
regime confronting a protest movement drawn largely from the country’s
Sunni majority.